Cohasset nanny beach permits approved after heated debate

Town Manager Chris Senior presented the new language Tuesday night but not everyone was on board and resulted in one selectman scolding another over the definition of affluence.

Mary Ford mford@wickedlocal.com

Cohasset nannies, aka child care providers, will be able to go to Sandy Beach Monday through Friday in their own car with their young charges, after all.

The Town Clerk and Town Manager had eliminated the “nanny category” from the all-facilities sticker policy in order to simply matters last month but were asked to insert language to include child-care providers into the updated and newly adopted All Facility Rules and Regulations governing the permits.

Town Manager Chris Senior presented the new language Tuesday night but not everyone was on board and resulted in one selectman scolding another over the definition of affluence.

Selectman Kevin McCarthy said he was not in favor of picking out a segment of non-residents and using government resources to help them. He said the issue was making the board a “laughingstock.”

“If you can afford a nanny then it can be assumed that you are relatively affluent in the relatively affluent town,” said McCarthy, who added that he has heard from residents who find that offensive and he does as well. He also noted that families with nannies have not come forward and asked for, what he described as, a special benefit.

Selectman Steve Gaumer took umbrage at McCarthy’s remarks, talking about raising his three children in the same neighborhood as where McCarthy lives where both he and his former wife “worked their asses off” traveling in different directions to work and put enough money away to send their kids away to college.

“We had a nanny, god knows we weren’t rich…we mowed our own lawn, painted our own walls and stripped our own wallpaper,” he said. "We did not have contractors showing up every other day."

Gaumer added that if he hears one more thing about a class designation about the proper use of government resources, he was going to scream.

“We had a wonderful girl who came to our house and gave her love to our children and helped to raise them.” He said she not have a beach pass because he did not know one existed at the time and wished he had. "We could not give her one of our cars, we only had two -- both of us were going in opposite directions to work.

“This is a benefit for the children of the town that is all it is," he said.

He told McCarthy that if he wanted to stand in the way and bar the children of Cohasset access to the beach when their parents are working then he could have that duty. “I don’t want it,” Gaumer said.

Selectman Diane Kennedy noted that the nanny permits have been around a very long time in Cohasset.

“There is misinformation out there that we were just creating something out of whole cloth,” she said, adding that if they chose not to allow the permits they would be taking something back that had been in town a long time.

Kennedy said the purpose is helping families that live in Cohasset. “We are not helping out the nanny but are helping out the residents of Cohasset who have child-care people who come in their own car.”

The nanny permits are $50 and are a vehicle-specific certificate that would be placed on the dashboard and would be difficult to photocopy.

The issue initially came up last month because some Cohasset nanny permits were being sold on social media and the board wanted to prevent that suspected abuse. Around 30 nanny permits are issued annually.

Selectmen Chairman Paul Schubert said the permits were reasonable, had been going on for years, and that he had received calls from families with two parents working that supported the permits.

Schubert described the weekly permit as a wonderful addition to a family with two parents working whose young children should have access to the beach during the week.

The board voted 4 to 1 with McCarthy issuing a loud “no” to approving the nanny language in the rules and regulations.